Judy Nelson Elementary School

Named after a much-beloved school employee, the brand new Judy Nelson Elementary School (K-6th) opened its doors to students in January 2017 in Kirtland, New Mexico. The school houses 40 new classrooms for 600-700 students, as well as a large cafeteria served by a commercial kitchen. A wing of the old Ruth N. Bond Elementary School on the site was renovated to include the gymnasium and music room and was incorporated into the voluminous new school. Sixty-nine-percent of the costs were paid for by the State of New Mexico Public School Facilities Authority (PSFA) funding, while the Central Consolidated School District (CCSD) provided the remaining 31%. In the evenings, the gleaming new school serves as a community center. The Diné (Navajo) language and traditional Diné cooking, for example, are taught by Diné teachers to local families in a program sponsored by the Central Consolidated School District Cultural Heritage Center. Nearly seventy-percent of the students at Judy Nelson are Native American from the Navajo Nation.

Architect
Dekker/Perich/Sabtini

Location
Kirtland NM

Category
Education

Square-Footage
95,000

Construction Cost
$20M

Collaborating closely with CCSD and the architect, ME&E designed fire protection, plumbing, mechanical, electrical, communications, and fire alarm as an integrated system to best serve the students, faculty, administrative staff, and maintenance staff.